mechanism · 03 · spring steel · return · still tense
it remembers its length and forgives any temporary departure from it. you press it down, it presses back, exactly. an honest little creature: no surplus, no hidden grudge, only the quantity of return required for the quantity of insult given.
this one came out of a pocket watch and was never reseated. it has been on the bench since a four-in-the-morning when the watchmaker decided to leave the work for the day and not come back. the spring has been waiting in the same shape ever since.
field-note · do not stretch it past its happiness. it will tell you, by going quiet, that you have asked too much.
cog · dampener · clockworks · skeleton watch